Always in Season Makes Its Debut

Producer Jackie Olive talks to the audience as she goes in great detail about her opening ﬁ lm

“Once I saw the photographs and postcards of the ‘Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America exhibit, I had to know who these people were-the victims who looked like me and thew spectators who resembled many of my friends and neighbors,” began Director, and producer Jackie Olive.

Always in Season is a documentary film that looks at the lingering and taxable century lynching of African Americans. Debuting Saturday evening at the Belmont Building, the film looks at things that are passed down multi-generationally from one generation to the next in families of the victims as well as the family of the perpetrators. “Even when people don’t openly talk about it, in a small town everybody knows what’s going on. That impacts the whole community. So looking at the anger, fear, shame and guilt that’s passed on, it’s often hidden because of there’s a lot of denial that surrounds a lynching,” said Olive.

People often think of these things as individual occurrences in the back woods in the middle of the night by the Klan. And that is often a way of distancing yourself from the reality of it. The reality was that lynching happened in the middle of the day in the middle of town in the courthouse square,” said Olive.

“The photographs ‘Without Sanctuary’ are a collection of photos that were taken with the spectators posing with the victims’ bodies. The photographers would often set up camera in the crowd, looking at the lighting, the composition, making sure the photograph is good and then shoot the photograph of the victims. Often they would be sold as postcards. There were several thousand of women that were lynched also.

The screening is a fund raiser for the project of finishing the filming. “Because of the people that came out Saturday night, it has enabled me to finish the filming for a television broadcast,” she said.

The next screening will, be at Open Books 1040 North Guillimard St on June 29 at 7pm. It’s free and everybody is invited to come out. For more information on other screenings, go to the website www.tellitmedia.org